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White Victims, White Villains: True Crime Podcasts, the 'Ideal Victim,' and the Demarcation of a 'White Criminal' Stereotype
Hessler, Meghan
Hessler, Meghan
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the overrepresentation of white male criminals in true crime podcasts, contrasting with the disproportionate focus on Black male criminals in the mainstream media. Despite the prevalence of ‘white-on-white’ crime in true crime narratives, the stereotype of the Black man as the archetypal criminal persists in the American imagination. This paradox raises questions about the influence of true crime consumption on racial stereotypes regarding ‘criminality.’ Through demographic profiling and qualitative analysis of top true crime podcasts Morbid, Crime Junkie, Dateline, and My Favorite Murder, this study aims to elucidate this discrepancy. By examining approximately 160 podcast episodes and cataloguing over a thousand, the research reveals the pervasive portrayal of white male murderers and white female victims and proposes hypotheses using grounded theory methodology as to how true crime podcasts may demarcate a ‘white male murderer’ stereotype without effecting the more generalized and pervasive ‘criminal Black male’ stereotype.
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2024-01-01